


Left Below Rewrite

by Heavy_Weapons_spy



Category: BioShock 1 & 2 (Video Games)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, Rewrite
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-27 01:44:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20752289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heavy_Weapons_spy/pseuds/Heavy_Weapons_spy
Summary: Eleanor Lamb ventures back down into Rapture to deal with the city once and for all.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have rewritten the first chapter of my first work to be in the third person and the past tense as I think this is a better style. Any feedback good or bad in the comments is greatly appreciated.

The others had moved on. Tenenbaum felt she had redeemed herself and was working as a researcher and trying to be a foster mother to Jacks daughters. Jack had his daughters to care for and the business savvy mind of his father to fuel it. Porter worked in computing, turning down several offers from the government to work on secret projects. He had moved on from his dead wife Pearl at las, although he had not found a new love yet. Eleanor tried to play matchmaker for Porter and Tenenbaum but she had not had any luck yet.

Eleanor had Subject Delta in her head. She had taken a job working as a nurse and was going to medical school to become a doctor. She had grown tired of surface life. She travelled the world for a bit, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, but she felt rapture calling me back constantly. Nothing compared to the hidden city, not the great wall in China or the streets of Paris, nor the jungles of the amazon.

Eleanor had travelled to Iceland then retrieved Sinclair’s lifeboat from a small underwater hideaway. She examined the genetic key again, such a strange little device. Apparently, it would read as Andrew Ryan’s DNA to the scanners in Rapture if any of them still worked. Jack had given it to her so that we could have some final closure on rapture but instead she wondered if she could keep the city as her personal retreat from the mundane surface world.

The lighthouse wasn’t visible until she came within a couple miles of it. She had removed the lightbulbs from the lighthouse. People must have found this by now she reckoned but decided without a bathysphere they probably just assumed the lighthouse was alone out here and not hiding a hidden city.

Brigid had destroyed the slug inside of her so she would need to be more careful about catching lead down in the city. The old big sister suit was a little too small now and it had been replaced with a new wetsuit, but the metal parts still fit and remained the same. She sat on the edge of the lighthouse with a metal weight to help her sink down to the city without a submersible.

She wondered how no one had asked questions about this place, perhaps someone was covering it up on behalf of Ryan or Fontaine, it was possible they had been paid off in advance. Maybe the secret agencies of the world knew about it all along and just watched it all unfold.

She leant over and took the plunge into the frigid depths. Eleanor counted four lonely spotlights still illuminating the city. Several tall buildings, surface scrapers, were flooded completely. She manoeuvred over to the top floor of the old welcome centre and into the flooded Kashmir restaurant.

She turned on her torch and dragged herself along the banister of a staircase. Starfish coated the faded scarlet carpets; barnacles were on the bar and empty plates stripped clean by the underwater bacteria. Several skeletons were strewn about the place. None of the lights worked so she decided to move on to where they did.

Eleanor swam over to the glowing crater where She had been imprisoned. Vibrant sea creatures swam around inside the trench. She saw something big down there and went to take a look. It was just a long shark, unnaturally so, three times as long but not as wide and covered in slugs.. She saw the Amusements and Dionysus park. There was so much for her to explore and rediscover.

She knew once her presence was known people would want her to do something if there were any people still down here. Her Father’s feelings stir memories of the Adonis and she returned to see where he took her for their last walk as a little sister and big daddy. Where he met mother and his death.

There are lights on in Paupers drop, Hephaestus and Arcadia. She sets aside her own desires to revisit her past and heads towards Paupers Drop to find the survivors. If they are to leave they will need to pack their belongings and several will need convincing not to stay.

Eleanor wondered if she could blow up the city if she knew someone was inside, unaware of their doom or accepting of it. She scanned the view one last time and set off down to the Drop. Fathers memories of Sinclair resurface, and her memories of aunt Gracie did as well.

Eleanor remembered how she used to spend the day with auntie Grace in her room before mothers’ experiments required her. She wishes she had come with us to the surface and hoped she would still be alive down here.

She looked through the windows to discover the Drop had changed little other than the lack of mother’s posters and splicers, in fact it seemed a bit better maintained. She took a peek in more of the windows and saw people moving around.

A big sister taps her on the arm.

Eleanor spun around and kicked away from the window to face her sister. Her heart started racing, and a chill ran down her spine. The big sister points towards the airlock and swims off towards it. Eleanor followed her. She knew she was a good fighter from her brief time escaping but she wasn’t going to rish fighting a big sister one on one underwater unless she had to. Subject Delta killed many she thinks; he is with me and we could if we needed to

Eleanor noticed that the sister has no needles with which to stab. There are no metal supports on her legs either. The two of them swim through a broken walkway that has been sealed outside, through coral crusted pillars that hold the Atlantic express and through a shoal of oncoming fish.

They stand inside the airlock and the water drains. The big sister has removed her helmet before the water has reached their ankles. Her skin is slightly greyer than it should be, a sign that something is off with her. She looks at Eleanor with big green eyes, they swirl slightly, she has some bio luminescent fluid in them, and green is a display of her emotional state. Her hair is black and long, the family would have kept it short.

Tenenbaum had warned Eleanor that the slugs probably wouldn’t just stay in them forever, they would want to reproduce and most likely detach themselves eventually. She said she didn’t know if it would be a deaths sentence or a release into a normal life, free of the parasite.

“You are Eleanor, right? You have come to rescue us and take us to the surface?” The big sister asked excitedly.

“Yes I am Eleanor, I will take you topside. what’s your name?”

“Sarah!”

“How many of you are there here?”

“lots, almost a hundred! Come, I show you!”

The inner door of the airlock opened. A hundred was probably more than the lifeboat could do in one trip. There was a crowd waiting for me.

A month ago, Eleanor had sent a radio beacon in a small watertight canister to tell of her arrival and it looked like it had been well received. She removed a sealed tube from her back that is filled with newspapers she had collected for them.

“Hello Eleanor. My name is Sidney.” A man with a cockney accent greeted her.

“Hello, I take it you have all heard of me. I have news from the surface.”

She handed the papers around. She had struggled to find enough moon landing papers but had managed to get them copied.

“I don’t know what you have heard but I am here for some reminiscence and to closure. There is more advanced technology and culture topside, but I cannot allow ADAM to escape this watery prison.” Eleanor told them.

“What about people with a few plasmids, or your sisters?” He asked.

“There is a machine on the surface that Porter and Tenenbaum have built that can remove ADAM from a person, the sisters on the surface are normal again.” She explained.

“What if we want to stay?” A woman asked.

“Then You will be left down here. There is a way to detonate Hephaestus. This is Andrew Ryan’s Genetic Key.” She held it out to show them. “It can be used to destroy the city.”

“Not, if we don’t let you. Ryan’s old office is mine now. I put a lot of work into maintaining the Hephaestus, you can’t just come back and blow it all up.” A man tells me.

“I understand. I know you may want to continue your lives down here but the Rapture abomination needs to end. There will be life on the surface for you all, you are just blind to what you are missing!”

Eleanor is unsure whether she has to blow it all up, but she knows that as long as ADAM exists Rapture cannot be left unchecked. The people seemed fine to her, not any loons from what she had seen. She took a tour of the Drop and saw how much it had changed. Walls had been painted; broken windows boarded up, leaky pipes fixed or replaced. The smell was far better than it ever was.

The cameras are gone, the vending machines are dismantled. A bathtub has been placed to collect water that drips down onto the street from a small leak above.

“What happened to Grace Holloway?” Eleanor asked.

“She still lives here, just as a citizen.” Sidney replied.

“I would love to meet her again.”

“She spoke to me earlier; she wasn’t sure if you would kill her or hug her, or if you were fucked up enough to do both. But she asked that I let you if you wanted too.” Sidney looked into her eyes. “You’re not going to kill her, are you?”

“I would see her and don’t worry; she is quite safe.”

He took her to a small cafe and bought her a coffee. It was bad by surface standards, really bad in Eleanor's opinion, but still coffee. He seemed to enjoy it as do the other patrons. Eleanor asked about how they still had coffee and Sidney explained that they were growing in in Arcadia.

I saw that it would not be the wild ride I was hoping for, no more feral splicers to deal with no daddies to save, and worst of all they were expecting me to bring them up to the surface. There was little profit now as well, technology had evolved and apart from ADAM there was nothing that would make me a fortune.

Sarah followed them with some other tall women that Eleanor presumed were big sisters. They mostly wore oversized shirts apart from a pair in well-fitting ones made from odd pieces of fabric sewn together. She knows she will meet them soon, Grace Holloway comes first.

In a small nook of the Drop there is a room with “Grace Holloway” written on the door. Eleanor knocked then let herself in_, aunt Gracie never did lock her door_ she chuckled internally.

“Who is it?” Grace called.

Her hair was grey, and her stick had been replaced by a wheelchair. She wore the same yellow dress just faded some more. She has old posters on her walls and a crate filled with odd audio logs. Some were hers, others Lambs or Ryan’s, Atlas and one from Anna Culpeper.

“It’s me, Eleanor.”

“Baby Eleanor!” she turns to look. Eleanor bent down and they hugged.

“I’ll leave you too it.” Sidney announced as he stepped outside.

“So, how’s the surface?” she asked.

“Everything you ever told me about it is true and more.”

“How are old Sinclair and Delta?” she asked.

Eleanor took a deep breath.

“They didn’t make it, Mother got them.”

“Sorry, I didn’t know.”

“It’s alright, father is still with me, mothers project worked in a way.”

“Your mother, is she dead as well?”

She didn’t answer at first. Her biggest shame, after all she had done.

“No, she isn’t. I couldn’t bring myself to do it.” She confessed.

“It’s alright child.”

“No, I killed dozens of her followers but when it came to her I didn’t. she was drowning, I saved her life.”

“Where is she now?”

“I don’t know, she left me. I need to make sure she isn’t down here again, and I need closure.”

“I see, well she isn’t here.”

“Good, I met with Tenenbaum and Porter, there is a man named Jack as well and several of my sisters.”

“No nuclear fire?”

“Not yet, Men have been to the moon though!”

“Really! Oh, I missed you Ele. But I don’t know if my old bones have what it takes to return to the surface.”

“Do it for me, Please.” I lean back and stand up again.

I can hear voices outside; my sisters are following me.

“I will be back for dinner at some point aunt.”

“Yes, yes, your audience awaits dear.”

On her way back to the door she spotted one of her old sketchbooks and a worn rabbit doll on a shelf and smiled to herself. Retirement has been good for Grace.


	2. Seeking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eleanor meets the big sisters and travels to Dionysus park.

Outside Grace’s abode a small crowd had gathered. Seven of them. Eleanor was not used to people being taller than her. They fidget a lot but don’t look away when She looks at them.

“Hello again.” Eleanor greets her sisters.

“We want to go with you.” Sarah informs her.

“I am not going to the surface just yet. I want to visit a few places first.”

“Where?”

“Dionysus park.”

“Then we want to visit Dionysus park with you.”

Sarah was very pleased that Eleanor was there, all the big sisters seemed to be expecting her to whisk them away to a better life.

“Sure, all of you?” Eleanor asked.

“Yes. We want you to meet some of our, other sisters. They are less… normal”

“Alright, lest go, I will learn names along the way.”

They seemed normal enough by rapture standards, a couple were spider spliced, they were almost seven foot and their eyes glowed. Eleanor wondered what the other four must look like if a big sister would consider them odd. The other four were hiding around the corner waiting to be introduced.

One of them had half of her chest and her right arm made from red chitin, there was a large claw in place of a hand. Eleanor didn’t say anything but was curious how powerful it was and how she used it day to day.

The next had gills, small fins on the arms and sharp teeth. It seemed that they had tried to splice some shark into her.

Another had something wrong with her stance, she drooped low and lent on Sarah. She had small suckers on her hands and a weird blue tint to her skin.

The final one was still in her big sister suit. Bulkier than a normal one. Eleanor couldn’t see her face inside her helmet, just a dim crimson liquid. She doesn’t talk, she is completely silent. The suit didn’t appear to have the normal belts or fasteners that it should and had too many tubes.

Eleanor told them about the surface. The sun, the birds, music, food, radio and television. They stare at her in wonder.

The group set off and made it all the way to the airlock. They made themselves comfortable and decided who would get to go to Dionysus park with Eleanor and who would have to wait to get to spend more time with her. They had so much to ask and tell Eleanor that she had to make a deal to sit down and listen later.

Eleanor regretted taking them with her as they continued to ask endless questions, although she would still take the others with her later, she kept her promises. Dionysus was semi submerged again. She traced her father’s footsteps; finding the dead bouncers and splicers he had dealt with. The big sister her killed is gone as is any sign of that Stanley Poole. She hoped she wouldn’t run in to him again and wondered if her father leaving him was as bad as killing him, there was no way he could have survived by himself.

The others were upset about the dead bouncers and a small dispute between Eleanor and a big sister named Jane over whether or not it was necessary ended with Jane deciding she no longer wanted to talk about it. It was quiet, the water no longer dripped down as the leaks had filled the Interior and when they were above water there was no noise save for their chatter and footsteps.

They make it to the carousel where Mark Meltzer was captured. Eleanor wished he could have met Cindy now; she had a good life on the surface and took a great interest in Porters work. The others Were getting bored of slowly moving through the park and taking one last look at what has become of the city. A game of tag breaks out. Eleanor tried to ignore it but one of her sisters, Lily, tags her then runs off. She chased after Zara, the one with the claw, but end up catching Hailey who was trying to hide behind a pillar. This was fun but not what she came here for.

Eleanor changed the game into hide and seek with her as the seeker. Now she can explore the past and entertain her sisters.

“No peeking.” Jane ordered.

“No peeking, One hundred, Ninety-nine…” Eleanor started the countdown.

When she reached zero, she opened her eyes and started the hunt. Through a starfish coated hallway and down a corridor laced with long inert electric arrows and spears that she peeled from the walls.

She reached the train station. She sees her fathers’ memories of Stanley Poole followed by a scream. She turned to see a glowing blue big sister charge at her and raised a non-existent rivet gun at her. She fired and the ghost fades away to reveal some old missed rivets lodged in the wall.

Eleanor could have sworn the metal was hot to the tough. They must be cold like the rest of this place, she knew that, but they were warm to her touch. She wondered why she thought this would bring her peace. Father understands. He, they, think about the girl he killed here. It wasn’t either of their faults it was her mothers. He reminds her that he did it for her future and she moves on to the next room.

A small family of crabs is walking across the room. She walks past a giant sculpture of two women dancing and looked up to see Hailey perched atop one of their heads.

“How did you get up there?” Eleanor asked.

“Not easily.”

“How are you going to get down?”

“Not easily.” she replies. She clambered back down then she fells the last few metres. She dusts herself off then acts as if nothing happened.

“What is this place?” Hailey asks Eleanor as they move on to the next area.

“A retreat, somewhere people go to relieve stress.” Eleanor told her.

Delta remembers the turrets in Cohens fine arts and warns her. She carefully peaked inside. The ice has melted, and the turrets are all rusted. A couple of splicers are dead inside the doorway, caught by the turrets and several more skeletons including a cat are found inside.

Giggling can be heard, one of the sisters is hiding somewhere that Eleanor must have walked past. Behind a large painting that was leant against the wall was a prone Lily. When Eleanor tipped the painting over, she was greeted by Zara as well.

“Found you.”

“No fair, Lily is a giggler!” Zara complained.

“Sorry.” Lily sheepishly said as she continued to giggle.

Eleanor took the time to look at each of the paintings although she did not see any beauty in Cohens art. She was not sure what is decayed and what is as painted and soon moved on. Outside she sees glowing violet coral growing along the base of the windows. Her sisters don’t appreciate how beautiful this twisted city is, it is just mundane to them.

A theatre is flooded halfway up the screen. The helmet goes back she swims up. Wet footsteps lead along the aisle and around into the projectionist’s office. Jane is inside, not bothering to hide.

“Damn, that was fast.” Jane said distantly.

“Found you.”

“I was captured in a room like this, but over in fort Frolic.” Jane flicks through he reels of film.

Eleanor assumed she meant another projection room when she was a feral monster.

“Tell me more about the little sisters that Jack saved.” Jane asks.

The others resurface and join them.

“I can tell you if you tell me your story after.” Eleanor offers.

She hesitates then nods. They all make them selves comfortable as Eleanor recants the tale of a few dozen little sisters living with Jack and Tenenbaum. Fontaine had several stashes to back up his smuggling network and they had appropriated them for the care of the girls. Eleanor described schools, real ones and found that most of the big sisters was not much more advanced than a little sister when it came to knowledge.

When she had finished, she realised she would have to tell all this again to the other sisters and gave a small sigh.

“Alright then Jane, your turn.” Eleanor finished.


	3. Jane's Capture

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jane tells the story of how she was captured and taken into the Rapture family.

Jane was a feral brat, scrounging out of bins and drinking out of the bathroom sinks in Fort Frolic. She couldn’t fit in the hidey holes anymore; the orphanage was empty, and her sisters had mostly been taken to the surface years ago.

“Mister bubbles!” She yelled with a hopeful glee.

She ran towards the old Rosie and he just shoved her aside like they all do now. Jane kept her needle as she had been conditioned too, but it is rusted and caked in dried blood. She sings the little rhyme about the land of Lillypoppy and follows him, waiting for him to notice her. He bangs on the vent. Right Infront of her, he just bangs for attention and then ignores her. Jane is heartbroken that he just doesn’t love her.

A spliced woman spots her and calls out. She knows Jane has ADAM in her and that the metal golem won’t protect her anymore. Jane walked towards her, through a camera spotlight which ignored her. A Pipe and a needle are raised at each other.

The woman turns and runs around a corner. When Jane runs after she leaps out at the last second and lands the pipe in the centre of Janes forehead. Jane is dazed but armed with regeneration.

They scratch and punch on the ground, but Jane’s wounds heal in seconds while the splicers are getting worse and worse. The pipe hits her shoulder repeatedly, sending out pulses of bright white along the veins in Janes arm. Jane Stabs the woman in the stomach and wriggles the needle around until she stops struggling.

Jane got to work feeding herself before more people can smell her angel. There is a clump of Jane’s hair in the Angel’s hand. She feels her new bald spot and hopes the daddy won’t notice. Jane’s rags are in even worse condition than the woman’s, so she takes hers. They are cleaner and less tattered even if they are a few sizes too big.

She takes a big gulp of ADAM rich blood. Her hand freezes but isn’t cold. Jane doesn’t understand plasmids, but she has seen bad men with frozen hands before and plasmids are second nature to those with them. It’s not the first time her drinking has had this effect on her. She has turned invisible while drinking before and had a swarm of bees buzzing around her arm.

She played around with the ice. Froze a puddle then slide across it. She then froze the nearest door, a vending machine and a suitcase. It felt weird but good to shoot ice from her hand. She couldn’t bring this power up like most splicers, it would come and go whenever she drank the angel blood.

A big daddy called out, but something was off. He is too high pitch. She ventured up a staircase and saw him sitting down next to a camera overlooking a large screen. Jane look at him, puzzled. He had a tea set, a phonograph and a teddy bear. He puts the needle to the record when he sees Jane.

“Somewhere beyond the sea…” The music starts.

Janes vision brightens. Back to how it was conditioned; his armour is golden not bronze, it smells of roses, not rot and death. He pours her a cup and offers it to her. It’s too good to be true.

Jane walks over, careful in case she might somehow startle her noble knight if she moves too fast. She takes the cup from him and sips the liquid.

“It’s tea! It’s actually tea!” She excitedly squeals.

She sipped again.

“Thank you, Mr bubbles!”

He leans in and strokes her hair gently. She is overcome by the show of affection and hugs him. Tears start to drip down her face. He strokes her hair more and moans his whale song again.

Another sip and Jane let out a yawn. She doesn’t want to fall asleep now or she might lose him, but this is the first time she has truly felt safe in years. She leant on him and he puts his large cold arm around her.

“Thank you.” She whispered to him.

He turns the record off and pours some tea into her mouth. Jane allowed her eyes to close.

Jane woke up to the sound of men talking. She slowly managed to look up drearily. The big daddy is still holding her, but his helmet is off. He is a normal man underneath. She looks around, there are more people with him.

“Mr bubbles?” She managed.

“Just rest now.” He rubs her arm.

“Is she going to be okay?” Another man asked.

“Yes, she is just one tough cookie. He sedatives are taking effect now.” The daddy answered.

Jane struggled to use a plasmid but had no strength and slipped back into his arms.

When next she woke, she was in a padded cell with her EVE drained so she couldn’t escape. From there she was taught how to be a good member of the Rapture family.


	4. Finding

“Thank you for sharing that with me Jane.” Eleanor told her.

“I guess I would have died a long time ago if they didn’t capture me.” Jane confessed.

“I was shot with sleepy stuff. Tea would have been nice.” Hailey tried to comfort her.

“Still quite horrible to trick you like that.” Eleanor added.

“I suppose.” Jane said.

Eleanor flicked through the films and read the titles. “The dance of the butterflies” A short film her mother had made with that awful Sander Cohen before they had stopped talking. “The impossible.” A propaganda film where several of Rapture’s more successful inhabitants were portrayed fleeing the tyranny of the surface, complete with fake cars and planes. “Splicerman.” Commissioned by Fontaine to push plasmids by having a regular guy splice into a hero and change the world.

At the end of the row was a different film case. Shinier and better cared for. The name had faded but Eleanor could tell it was from the surface and very special to whoever had run this theatre.

“Alright, Scarlet and Sally are still out there somewhere.” Eleanor told them.

They all dive through the flooded theatre again and back track all the way to where they started. They travelled through the walkways with the ocean all around them.

“There she is!” Jane shouts.

They turn to see her pointing to a window.

“That’s cheating Scarlet, you’re not in Dionysus park!” Jane complains.

“She can’t hear you.” Eleanor points out.

Scarlet is in the ocean looking down on them. Eleanor fastened her helmet then disappeared in a purple flash only to reappear behind Scarlet. She tapped her shoulder to her surprise. She spun around then they both teleport back inside.

“I was starting to worry about you forgetting me.” Scarlet tells her.

“No, just didn’t expect you to be outside. We are still looking for Sally.” she replies.

They take ten minutes to explore the rest of the park and come to the conclusion that they have missed her in one of the previous rooms.

She was in a good spot. Trying to fix a power to the people machine when they ran into her. It was far too rusted at this point to ever work again.

“Took your time.” she said cheekily.

“Had to take in all the sights.” Eleanor told her.

“Found some old bottles.” she pointed to some gene tonics.

Eleanor knew the glowing substances were bad and would change whoever used them for the worse. She had never spliced herself willingly before. She reached into her fathers’ memories and saw, felt, him splicing. He needed it so he could save her. Eleanor wondered what if. What if splicing could be a force for good, if they just use slugs to get small amounts and use the thinker to work out the kinks. Sure, it could be bad but was it that much worse or even as bad as nuclear bomb, Eleanor wondered.

Sports boost, breast grow, booze hound and security evasion. The sports boost has been opened before. She opened it again and smelt the sweet ADAM. The only times she ever actually tasted ADAM with her tongue she was with her father. It must be nice without blood mixed in with it.

_No!_

She is better than this. The lid goes back on.

Eleanor put it back then looked up to see Jane staring at the bottle, she wanted it just like they all did. The others seem less keen other than Jane and sally seems not to mind the smell.

“We should take it back to the clinic.” Hailey suggests.

“What for?” Eleanor asked sceptically.

“They can heal a lot of wounds as a side effect of the ADAM.”

“Good idea. Should we head back then?”

There were a lot of mixed signals, but they agreed. They wanted to stay out, but Eleanor was insistent that there would be no more games until she had seen what she wanted to.

Subject Delta whispers into Eleanor's mind. _“You shouldn’t uncover new places down here or you will be sucked in to exploring.”_

He knows how rewarding exploring can be and how dangerous.

_“I should see a therapist, but mother has put me off for life.”_ Eleanor thinks back.

The swim back to Paupers drop is short and follows the Atlantic express line until it breaks off to a small airlock rather than going in through the large train doors.


End file.
